Doreen Tracey, original Mouseketeer who found a second career with Frank Zappa, dies at 74By Steve MarbleJan 11, 2018 | 5:20 PMDoreen Tracey appeared on Disney's "The Mickey Mouse Club" during its original 1955-59 run. (Walt Disney Co.)  

Doreen Tracey, one of the original Mouseketeers on Disney's popular after-school program "The Mickey Mouse Club" and later an associate of avante-garde composer and musician Frank Zappa, has died. She was 74.

Tracey, who long described herself as the "black sheep" of the 1950s children's show, died Wednesday while being treated for pneumonia at a hospital in Thousand Oaks.

A bubbly child and Type A personality, Tracey was featured on "The Mickey Mouse Club" during the entirety of its original 1955-59 run on ABC. The show lived on in syndication and she maintained a lifelong association with Disney, appearing in a spinoff with Annette Funicello, the actress and singer, as well as films such as "Westward Ho the Wagons!" with Fess Parker.

Tracey also had a more adventurous side and in the 1960s formed a rock group called Doreen and the Invaders, touring Vietnam in 1968 shortly after the Tet Offensive, one of the most aggressive military campaigns of the war.

She also posed nude for the magazine Gallery — except for the Mickey Mouse ears she wore — and worked as a publicist for Zappa, an unconventional but deeply admired musician and occasional filmmaker.

The risque photos cost her work at Disney, she told The Times, and she came to regret the decision.

"You get caught up in your own ego, not paying attention, not seeing the full repercussions," she said.

Tracey eventually reconciled with Disney and became a regular at Mousketeers reunions and conventions.Doreen Tracey, fourth from left, at a reunion with some of the original Mouseketeers at Disneyland in 1995. (Kari Rene Hall / Los Angeles Times)  

In an interview with The Times in 1995, she recalled that Walt Disney had advised her that appearing on the Mickey Mouse Club would be a heady experience.

"Walt Disney said to me, 'This will probably be the greatest thing you'll ever do in your entire life,'" she said. "That was pretty heavy stuff for a 12-year-old. But he was right."

Born in London on April 3, 1943, Tracey arrived in the United States when she was 4 and learned to sing and dance — necessities of being a Mouseketeer — at a studio her father operated in Hollywood.

After her television career, she worked until retirement as an administrator at Warner Bros.

Divorced, Tracey is survived by a son, Bradley, and two grandchildren, Gavin and Autumn.

ESPN announced the news Saturday morning after confirmation from Jackson's family.

The Georgia native is best known for his coverage of college football for more than five decades from 1952 through his retirement in 2006. The last 40 years of that play-by-play work came with ABC Sports.

"For generations of fans, Keith Jackson was college football," Walt Disney Company chairman Bob Iger said, per ESPN. "When you heard his voice, you knew it was a big game. Keith was a true gentleman and memorable presence. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Turi Ann, and his family."

Thanks for posting this. It seems I’m one of the few basketball fans on the forum. I remember Jo Jo well as a sports loving kid in the ‘70’s. I remember the NBA on CBS used to have a one-on-one tournament that they would show at half-time of games. Jo Jo made it to the finals against Bob Lanier (a nearly 7’ center from the Detroit Pistons - Jo Jo was a point guard, maybe 6’2”). I can’t remember who won. I’ll need to google it as they say in the trade.

Dorothy Malone, star of the big and small screen with “Written on the Wind,” “Basic Instinct” and “Peyton Place,” died on Friday morning in Dallas of natural causes. She was 92.

Working in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the striking blonde actress won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in Douglas Sirk’s melodrama “Written on the Wind,” which she starred in with Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack. After years of smaller roles, the Oscar helped her secure roles in larger projects like “Too Much, Too Soon,” “Man of a Thousand Faces,” and “Warlock.” She would frequently work with Hudson throughout the 1960s, as she played opposite him twice more in “The Tarnished Angels” and “The Last Sunset.”

After years in the film business, Malone waded into television with a starring role on prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place” from 1964 to 1968. She later revived her Constance MacKenzie character in TV movies based on the series, 1977’s “Murder in Peyton Place” and 1985’s “Peyton Place: The Next Generation.” She also appeared in a number of miniseries, including “Rich Man, Poor Man” and “Condominium.”

Malone’s last on-screen appearance may be one of her most famous, playing a mother convicted of murdering her family in 1992’s “Basic Instinct,” alongside Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.

Originally Dorothy Maloney, the star was born in Chicago but grew up in Dallas, attending Southern Methodist University. She was discovered there by a talent scout while acting in a school play, and soon after was signed to a studio contract.

Manager Burt Shapiro reported her death.

She was married and divorced three times, to actor Jacques Bergerac, Robert Tomarkin and Charles Huston Bell. She is survived by two daughters she had with Bergerac, Mimi and Diane.

The chef, who underwent a triple heart bypass in 2005, had also been suffering from Parkinson's disease.

His temple to French gastronomy, L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, outside the city of Lyon in south-eastern France, has held three stars - without interruption - since 1965 in the Michelin guide, the bible of gastronomes.

Often referred to as the "pope of French cuisine", Mr Bocuse was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with business tactics - branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe.

As early as 1982, Mr Bocuse opened a restaurant in the France Pavilion in Walt Disney World's Epcot Centre in Orlando, Florida, headed by his son Jerome, also a chef.

In recent years, Mr Bocuse even dabbled in fast food with two outlets in his home base of Lyon.

"He has been a leader. He took the cook out of the kitchen," said celebrity French chef Alain Ducasse, speaking at a January 2013 gathering to honour Mr Bocuse - then just shy of his 87th birthday.

While excelling in the business of cooking, Mr Bocuse never flagged in his devotion to his first love, creating a top class, quintessentially French meal.

Born of a family of cooks that he dates to the 1700s, Mr Bocuse stood guard over the kitchen of his world-famous restaurant even in retirement when he was not travelling, keeping an eye on guests, sometimes greeting them at table.

The red and green Auberge by the Saone River, his name boldly set atop the roof, is a temple to Mr Bocuse - who was born there - and to other great chefs.

Born on February 11, 1926, Mr Bocuse entered his first apprenticeship at 16.

He worked at the famed La Mere Brazier in Lyon, then spent eight years with one of his culinary idols, Fernand Point.

Mr Bocuse's career in the kitchen traversed the ages. He went from apprenticeships and cooking "brigades", as kitchen teams are known, when stoves were coal-fired and chefs also served as scullery maids, to the ultra-modern kitchen of his Auberge.

Jim Rodford, a founding member of Argent and bassist for the Kinks and the Zombies, died Saturday at the age of 76.

Rodford's cousin and longtime band mate Rod Argent confirmed Rodford's death on the Zombies' Facebook page, with Argent adding that Rodford died Saturday following "a fall on the stairs."

"Jim was not only a magnificent bass player, but also from the first inextricably bound to the story of The Zombies. An enormous enabler for us," Argent wrote in his long tribute to Rodford. "To the end, Jim's life was dedicated to music. He was unfailingly committed to local music - an ever present member of the local scene in St. Albans, where he had spent his whole life."

The Kinks, who recruited Rodford following bassist John Dalton's permanent exit from the band in 1978, also paid tribute to Rodford on Twitter. "It is with deep sadness that we have learned that Jim Rodford passed away - he toured and recorded with the Kinks for many years and will be greatly missed. He was much loved by all of us," the band wrote.

Rodford spent 18 years as the Kinks' bassist, performing on every album from 1979's Low Budget to 1993's Phobia, the band's final LP before their breakup three years later.

As Argent wrote in his tribute to his cousin, Rodford was the first musician Argent attempted to add to his then-fledgling Zombies, but the bassist ultimately turned down the job since he was already a member of the popular British band the Bluetones. However, Rodford was instrumental in the development of the Zombies, lending the group the Bluetones' equipment, orchestrating the Zombies' early shows and "passing judgment" on their breakout 1964 single "She's Not There," penned by Argent.

Rodford also served as bassist in the Mike Cotton Sound before the Zombies' initial breakup in 1967; two years later, Argent would finally unite with his cousin to co-found Argent alongside drummer Bob Henrit and singer/guitarist Russ Ballard. Rodford would appear on all seven Argent albums – including the band's best-known song "Hold Your Head Up" – before that band dissolved in 1976.

Two years later, Rodford embarked on his nearly two-decade-long tenure with the Kinks. Dave Davies tweeted of Rodford Saturday, "I'm devastated Jim's sudden loss I'm too broken up to put words together it’s such a shock I always thought Jim would live forever in true rock and roll fashion - strange - great friend great musician great man - he was an integral part of the Kinks later years."

Rodford also played bass in the Kast Off Kinks, a group made up of Kinks expats like Mick Avory and Ian Gibbons, beginning in the late 2000s.

Over 40 years after he was first asked, Rodford finally joined the Zombies when Argent and singer Colin Blunstone revived the band in 2004; Rodford and his son, drummer Steve Rodford, remained members of the Zombies' touring unit until the bassist's death. Rodford also appeared on the group's 2015 comeback LP Still Got That Hunger.

Argent continued in his tribute to Rodford, "Jim was a wonderful person, loved by everybody. When Colin [Blunstone] and I, shocked and hardly able to talk, shared the news this morning, Colin said 'I've never heard anyone say a bad word about him...' He will be unbelievably missed. Goodnight and God Bless dear friend."

I saw Rodford twice: once with the Kinks and once with the Zombies. He was indeed an excellent bassist...

Saw him, with Argent, in 1972. Black Sabbath was the headliner, but, Ozzy had a sore trout, and they cancelled just before showtime. We were given the choice for refund, or use the tickets for Alice Cooper the following week. I chose....COOPER!Argent went ahead and played anyway. Free music!

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I saw Rodford twice: once with the Kinks and once with the Zombies. He was indeed an excellent bassist...

Saw him, with Argent, in 1972. Black Sabbath was the headliner, but, Ozzy had a sore trout, and they cancelled just before showtime. We were given the choice for refund, or use the tickets for Alice Cooper the following week. I chose....COOPER!Argent went ahead and played anyway. Free music!

If pigeons did no harm to Ozzy, surely he could deal with a sore trout - or are you referring to Sharon?

_________________"I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly."

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